Building Back to School Writing Tools

I'm glad to once again join Denise Hill's linky. I missed last week because I was setting up my classroom. We start school on Monday, and I am so excited to get to know all (84) of my 5th grade reading and science students!

Here we go with writing tools--I love, love, love anchor charts! They work for any topic in any subject, but I especially used them for writing last year. The key to an effective anchor chart is to make it WITH the kids and build it gradually. Don't add all the information at once; it needs to be a work in progress. Once the chart is filled, display it somewhere that the kids can still access it.

This is one of the first charts I made with my first-graders at the beginning of our writer's workshop that stayed up all year long. We began with narrative, then added informational and opinion later in the year. I just kept unfolding the chart paper as we needed more of it, so this poster didn't need much space at the beginning of the year.

First grade again...this time breaking down a narrative into genres and adding guidelines for them to remember. Once again, this poster was made over a very long period of time (9 weeks). Each time we would add something we found examples in mentor texts and practiced using it on our own. Even when we were done learning about narratives, this chart stayed on the wall so students could refer to it during free-write time.

Short, but sweet, I know! Please head on over to these other blogs for more great ideas and possibly some terrific give-aways :)

An InLinkz Link-up